Peaking the Ladder on Pokemon Showdown!

Introduction

Now, at some point during you Pokémon career, whether it be on Pokémon Online, mIRC, or viewing the forums, I am sure you have heard somebody talking about "Peaking The OU Ladder". However, Pokémon, being the convoluted game it is, makes this feat extremely hard through the constant chance of variables. Whether it be through hax or simply human error, you will make a mistake at some point through your vigorous climb. This article is here to hopefully teach you what mistakes you may be making, how that affects your playing, and most importantly, how to avoid the situation all together. Through this, you will hopefully be able to increase your rating on the new head simulator, Pokémon Showdown!, from low to high within a few quick hours of laddering.

Generation 4 and 5 changes: How did this affect a ladder?

I think we all can agree that the metagame has changed quite a lot from previous years. But you may ask, how has this affected the changes involved in the art of mastering the OU ladder? Well, if you remember back in the simpler times of DPP, there was quite a difference in the way people utilized teams to peak at the top of the OU ladder. Previously, the main system to get to the top was use a offensive team until you eclipse a high enough rating, typically about 1400, then use a stall team to climb up to the very top as typically the obscure threats will be eliminated by then. However, this ladder on Pokémon Showdown! is a little different. The system instead works like this: PS! now initially searches in a 200-point radius centered at your rating, and expands that window by 1 point for every second that elapses.

Then of course you have the typical claim of how BW has increased offensive pressure so much that stall teams cannot function as well as they used to back in the days of DPP. This is not entirely true as there have been many successful stall teams this generation. However, the general offensive presence has grown very much and a stall team that has any glaring weakness, whether it is to physical or special attackers, can be more easily capitalized on. This alone makes stall slightly harder to play, especially if you are an inexperienced player, whether it be with the team itself or you lacking solid playing abilities.

The Inner Terror: Where Your Mind is The Enemy

So say after quite a few long matches, you feel like you're doing quite good on the ladder. You just reached a nice solid rating of 1800. You really believe you can do this. You're in the top 100 already; you're almost to the top. But what is this? Right in the last few dwindling turns of a long game, a critical hit was landed on one of your Pokémon, one that you need to win, causing you to lose the match. You keep your cool, however, and continue laddering. "I've come this far, I'm not going to lose now, am I?" Well, as soon as you step your foot into the next match you meet with your worst enemy once again, hax. You just lost 20 points and you're falling back down the ladder. You're clearly aggravated, but you still feel like you can do this. You start to work up a small sweat, and you're feeling slightly angry. On the third match, you begin to question yourself on the moves you're making. "Why did I just switch a Gyarados in on an Latios?" you ask yourself, and yet again you lose another match. Now is the time that is most crucial if you ever want to dig yourself up out of this hole. This is the most deadly force preventing you from achieving your goal; this more than deadly force is called "tilt."

If there has ever been a better chance to get off the computer and take a rest to calm down, it would be now. Tilt is what can turn even the greatest ladderers against themselves, putting them on terrible losing streaks, and if you can't recognize it when it starts, you could go back over 100 points, discouraging you to ever climb back up. This is what separates the best ladderers from the rest of the pack. Recognizing the tilt as soon as they see it, they refuse to keep clicking the "Find Battle" button and immediately leave the scene to cool off until they are ready to go back on. But of course, tilt is not the only thing that can turn you into a mindless zombie of a person. If you ladder for too long, your moves themselves will not make any sense, even if you're not directly on tilt yet. After a long session of laddering, it is best to quit and take a long break before getting back on. Continuous play can hurt your head, and literally cause headaches from continuously staring at a screen for hours on end. I would suggest an absolute maximum of 4 hours of laddering without a large break. If you're tired, that's even more of a reason not to play; this will decrease your thinking, and often twist your thoughts up if you're in a long match. To avoid this overall, ask yourself, whether it be tilt or exhaustion, am I ready to do another match? Should I take a break? In most cases, the right answer is to take a break.

But above all, there is an often overlooked terror on the ladder that you should always be prepared for: the skill level of your opponent. In fact, because of the amount of inexperienced players on the ladder, it is very common for even skilled players to overpredict and put themselves in an unsavory situation. Luckily we received a pleasant gift from the 5th generation in Team Preview. Based on the opposing team, you can sometimes tell how inexperienced your opponent is, but other times it is not that easy. Sometimes, inexperienced players may use more solid teams than you would expect. In any case, you could slip up and lose. To help prevent this, you can do a few simple things. At the start of the match, analyze your opponents moves and see how they are playing. Are they making smart moves? Do they have viable moves on their Pokémon? These are some of the only ways to tell how high their skill could possibly be, but sometimes this is even not enough. This is a hard obstacle to go around, but by analyzing your opponent's team and turns you may be able to avoid an untimely loss. Your mind can get ahead of you and cause you to overpredict on inexperienced players, which can make you lose points and eventually even put you on tilt.

Significant Laddering Teams and What Makes Them So Good

Now, you may be wondering, outside of your playing and factors like tilt and hax, what makes a great ladder team? In case you don't have any idea where to start, or just want to use something that is guaranteed to get you somewhere high on the ladder, these teams are good choices if you are a relatively new player to the subject of laddering, or you just need a good team to get started back up on your climb.

Description: One of my personal favorite teams to ladder with, I have eclipsed a rating of 1500+ on 4 alts at the same time on Smogon's PO server. This offensively minded team is made for anybody who wants to rack up wins, and is often used fantastically in tandem with the grinding strategy. This team features the common strategy of DragMag, however, it also has two rather unexpected additions in Mamoswine and ScarfRachi. Mamoswine gives the team a reliable entry hazard in Stealth Rock, while aiding in defeating enemy dragons, putting offensive pressure on other opponents leads, and causing trouble with the tricky move Endeavor. ScarfRachi gives you a nice Ice and Dragon resist while allowing you to check multiple threats such as Dragon Dance Dragonite and Calm Mind Latios, which otherwise would destroy this team. As an added bonus, Jirachi can even check the new threats of Tornauds-T and Thundurus-T with a strong super effective Ice Punch. The rest of the team is rather self explanatory with the included wallbreakers in Haxorus, Latios, and Dragonite, while Magnezone eliminates Steel-types that can put a full stop to the Dragon sweepers.

Why this team performs so well on the ladder: The reason this team grants a high winning percentage to anybody who uses it is because of the constant momentum and power it grants. This team can combat both defensive and offensive teams very well as long as you play it right. Make sure you keep your damage to the team at a minimum by making smart switches and predictions. With good playing in hand, this team should grant you a very high winning percentage even if you are inexperienced. The fast paced play will always be a constant thrill when playing this team.

Description: Despite the need for more support, sun teams are useful all the same, and many people have reached a high position on the ladder with one. Gamestarr has made a fantastic representation of what makes a great sun team to ladder with in the new BW2. What makes this team so great though is that it has a very steady amount of offense, which is supported by two trappers in Wobbufett and Dugtrio who eliminate any enemy weather that may be standing in Ninetales's way of permanently setting up sun through Drought. The team also features a great choice for any sun team in Forretress, which provides a reliable spinner and an answer to the strong physical threats to sun teams such as Landorus, Terrakion, and Dragonite. To finish off the team, two standard sun sweepers are used to capitalize the effect of a solid sun team. Volcarona and Venusaur can both allow successful sweeps together, beating down the fragile or sturdy forces of offense and stall.

Why this team performs so well on the ladder: Sun has always been a fantastic team style to ladder with due to the great fast paced offensive presence that it brings with its common sweepers that can easily sweep when given a single free turn. An offensive sun team can smash through virtually anything thanks to the great offensive Pokémon and abilities it provides for its teammates, making sun a very supportive weather condition. Sun teams must be played well though, as their relative fragility always puts them in danger. Keep in mind that you should keep Ninetales and your spinner alive, both vital members to a sun team if you wish to keep momentum and a weather advantage going. Overall, sun teams can demolish most teams that lack any weather at all, while they also can typically handle rain, sand, and especially hail, thanks to the teammates often included on the team itself.

Description: This wonderful team made by Princess Bri proves that a more defensively minded team can still have great success on the OU ladder. This team features a fantastic defensive core incorporating Heatran / Slowbro / Amoonguss which can handle the new prominent threats of the BW2 metagame quite nicely. The team also includes a Rapid Spin user in Forretress who can spin away entry hazards such as Spikes and Stealth Rock, while setting up its own to gain residual damage. Even better, Forretress's commonly seen move Hidden Power Ice is used to take out Dragon-types and Gliscor, which are very annoying threats to the team itself. Tyranitar is incorporated to give a weather condition to help combat rain, sun, and hail, while also taking care of threats like Latios and Gengar with Pursuit, as well as setting up Stealth Rock for additional support. Finally, we have the safe blanket Choice Scarf Landorus who capitalizes its above average base 101 Speed to outrun common setup threats such as Dragonite and Salamence.

Why this team performs so well on the ladder: The reason this team has achieved the rating of #1 by more than one player is because of how solid it really is. This team has no trouble with most of the modern threats, and the solid FWG core build allows it fantastic durability through type synergy. Performing well against offensive teams is a very important thing if you're running a more defensive team, which this team certainly demonstrates on the ladder. Being able to double up on many common threats gives a solid backbone to the team, as the demise of one necessary teammate does not leave the team open for a full fledged sweep on the opponent's side, meaning a Pokémon lost from hax does not mean the overall defeat of the team. This is a blessing on the ladder thanks to the common prevalence of luck.

Conclusion

Now that you've learned the rules and prepared yourself for laddering, get out there and make a name out of yourself! Remember to always be calm and play well, and avoid tilt and minimize hax at all costs. Thanks to the new simulator Pokémon Showdown!, the Smogon ladder is back in action, and hopefully you have the best luck you can in order to avoid the ever present hax, tilt, and overprediction. Once you're ready, prepare to conquer the Smogon OU ladder.